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Posted by Michael Kennedy on January 1st, 2013 (All posts by Michael Kennedy)

I wish I were more enthusiastic but I still wish everyone a good year. The “fiscal cliff” talks have ended about as I expected. The Republicans have pretty much rolled over. The House has yet to vote and I wonder how that will go. If they all grew a spine (or some other anatomical parts) they would vote “present” and let the Democrats pass the bill by themselves. Drudge has a link to the Breitbart story.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts.

When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts—cuts that never ultimately came—they did so at ratios of 1:3 and 1:2.

“In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes,” Americans for Tax Reform says of those two incidents. “The tax hikes went through, but the spending cuts did not materialize. President Reagan later said that signing onto this deal was the biggest mistake of his presidency.

“In 1990, President George H.W. Bush agreed to $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. The tax hikes went through, and we are still paying them today. Not a single penny of the promised spending cuts actually happened.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four —
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

It’s too long to post all of it and, for those who are unsure of the source of the title, copybooks were supplied for all school children in England, when it was still England. The copy books had traditional aphorisms on each page that children were expected to learn.

Another expression that relates to the books was someone “blotted his copybook.” This meant making an error that was difficult to correct.

The “copybook headings” to which the title refers were proverbs or maxims, extolling virtues such as honesty or fair dealing that were printed at the top of the pages of 19th-century British students’ special notebook pages, called copybooks. The school-children had to write them by hand repeatedly down the page.

The work has been described as “beautifully captur[ing] the thinking of Schumpeter and Keynes.”[2] David Gilmour says that while topics of the work are the “usual subjects”, the commentary “sound better in verse”[3] while Alice Ramos says that they are “far removed from Horace’s elegant succinctness” but do “make the same point with some force.”[4]

I don’t think I would agree that Keynes is an example of the copybook headings’ wisdom although his recommendations have been wildly distorted by politicians.

We are coming to a period when math will be far more determinant than wishful thinking in terms of our lives.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man —
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began —
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire —
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

5 Responses to “Happy New Year”

The meaning of Kipling’s term “gods of the marketplace” is somewhat ambiguous. He seems to be talking about the gods that are *fashionable*, ie, the ones that people will be talking about as they do their shopping…with this interpretation, today’s gods of the marketplace would be various forms of trendiness such as magical crystals, astrology, and various mystical “forces” including a conscious Gaia.

The term may also imply that the gods of the marketplace are those worshipped by those who must work to make their living, as opposed to those who are rulers or aristocrats…see ancient Greek reference here:

I am not pessimistic, although I can see some obvious problems and difficulties ahead for our nation, and the world, to work through.

But, truly, focusing on politics is a guaranteed way to get indigestion, and I am surrounded by too many good things in my personal and larger family life to allow that to happen.

We have faced worse many times over, problems both internal and external, and one way or another have muddled through. It would be nice if things could be done with less muddling, to be sure, but, unlike many, I have confidence that the innate good sense of the common people will come to the fore.

The desire of the average citizen for the freedoms bequeathed as their common heritage should never be underestimated, and nothing will arouse the people more than continued threats to that freedom.

At any rate, I am looking forward to some fishing trips with my older grandson this new year. The younger boy will only turn one this spring, so he’s a bit too little yet. All the big problems will have to take second place behind the enjoyment I have just contemplating those happy, precious moments.